Amazon Now 2-Hour Grocery Delivery Service Officially Launched in Delhi, Mumbai

Amazon Now, the company's 2-hour delivery service for essential household items, was officially rolled out to Delhi and Mumbai on Monday. Back in February, it was launched in Bengaluru at only select pin codes of the city.

The Amazon Now service guarantees deliveries within two hours of ordering (Express Delivery), and, customers can also choose to have their groceries scheduled to be delivered within a two-hour time slot from between 10 am and 10 pm (Scheduled Delivery). Amazon Now is only accessible currently via its Android app. The company says it will be made available for other platforms soon, including iOS.

Distinctly, the Amazon Now App on Google Play lists Hyderabad as a serviceable area as well, where it's presumably in its trial period. Notably, several users in Delhi had noticed the service was available for them as far back as August, and the online retail giant seems to be soft-launching the service in cities and assessing feasibility before making announcements. The app store listing also mentions NCR (National Capital Region) alongside Delhi, indicating the service is available in a trial run in select regions across the great metropolitan area as well.

Amazon Now offers free delivery for baskets above Rs. 350, and for baskets lower than Rs. 350 a delivery charge of Rs. 29 for Scheduled Delivery and Rs. 49 for Express Delivery. As a launch promotion in the Delhi and Mumbai, Amazon says there will be no minimum order to avail the free delivery.

"Our aim is to delight our customers with the best selection and pricing across our platforms along with a delightful delivery experience. And one such offering - AmazonNow has witnessed an amazing uptake by customers in Bengaluru. The positive response prompted us to expand to Delhi and Mumbai, to be able to service our customers in these cities too and enable them to shop for their everyday essentials or over 5,000 products from the ecosystem of their local stores and get them delivered within two-four hours," said Saurabh Srivastava, Category leader, Amazon India.

The company notes that through Amazon Now, users can shop for over 5,000 everyday essentials including fresh fruits, vegetables as well as frozen food items from local stores like Hypercity and Big Bazaar.

Source: Amazon India

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Amazon Prime Video is Now Live in India

Ever since the launch of Amazon Prime this July, there's been a huge amount of interest in Amazon Prime Video, the company's video on demand streaming service. Now, Amazon has finally made the apps available on both Android and iOS, and if you are a subscriber to Amazon Prime, you can immediately start using the app.

If you're on Android and you've already installed and signed-in to the Amazon app, then you don't even need to sign into the Amazon Video app - you can just install it and start watching with no further steps. This also confirms what we've been saying for a while - although the company never officially issued a statement - that Prime Video is included with Amazon Prime subscription. This makes it the cheapest video streaming service you can get with a pretty vast catalogue that includes a number of award-winning original shows that are exclusive to Amazon.

Right now, you can subscribe to Prime at just Rs. 499 per year; the full price is supposed to be Rs. 999 per year, though it's unclear when that comes into effect. At the present rate, that works out to under Rs. 50 per month for Amazon Prime Video, and even at full price it would be under Rs. 100 per month. That's significantly lower than Netflix, where the monthly fee is Rs 650, and it's also cheaper than homegrown alternatives such as Hotstar, which charges Rs. 190 per month.

Amazon is clearly paying attention to the local market. It is reported to be in the race for the IPL streaming rights, which would give the company access to India's huge sports market. Apart from this, the company has also been in talks with several Indian studios.

In the past few months, Amazon India has officially confirmed tie-ups with the likes of Dharma Productions – owned by director and producer Karan Johar – T-Series, as well as Arka Mediaworks' SS Rajamouli.

The Prime Video app features films like Sultan, Kabali, and Raaz (the last two are Amazon exclusives), alongside Supernatural, and the Man in the High Castle, the latter being Amazon Prime Video exclusives. TV shows focus on a number of popular picks that feel more accessible than Netflix's state, with picks such as 2 Broke Girls, and Mike and Molly, as well as a few shows that it shares in common with Netflix, such as Elementary, and the Good Wife.

This combination of pricing and content could help Amazon Prime Video start successful streaming in India, although it's going to face stiff competition, as a huge number of occupants already crowd the market. The company it seems is focusing more heavily than Netflix on local content, which would not just help it be more appealing to audiences within the country but would also likely be cheaper to acquire than international ones.

Whether this can help it to replace Flipkart in overall scale in India or not, it's still a welcome step to see Amazon Prime Video in India, as it brings several award-winning original shows, which you would not otherwise be able to watch legally in India.

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Source: Amazon

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Amazon's new Amazon Go Grocery Stores are Checkout Free

Amazon on Monday opened a corner grocery store in Seattle where customers can pick up their groceries and just walk out without having to queue up and pay at the checkout, kicking off the new competition with supermarket chains.

Amazon Go, the online shopping company's new 1,800-square-foot (167-square-meter) store, uses the company's "Just Walk Out" technology, which is a combination of sensors to detect what items shoppers have picked off the shelves and sends a bill to their Amazon Prime account.

Amazon employees can already shop at the first store near the company's headquarters in Seattle, which will be open to the public early next year. Leaked internal documents suggest Amazon could open 2,000 of the stores across the country.

The store marks Amazon's latest push into groceries, one of the biggest retail categories it has yet to master. The company currently delivers produce and groceries to homes through its AmazonFresh service.

"Four years ago we asked ourselves: what if we could create a shopping experience with no lines and no checkout? Could we push the boundaries of computer vision and machine learning to create a store where customers could simply take what they want and go?" the company says on an informational page about Amazon Go.

Source: Amazon

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Amazon Music Unlimited Launched; Takes on Apple Music and Spotify

Amazon has launched a full-fledged music streaming service with subscription plans as low as $3.99 (roughly Rs. 260) per month for owners of its Amazon Echo speaker, accelerating the industry trend towards more flexible pricing after years of sticking to $9.99 (roughly Rs. 660) subscriptions.

The new streaming service, called "Amazon Music Unlimited," lets users access a vast catalog of songs on demand, similar to Spotify and Apple Music. Subscriptions to play music on the Echo cost $3.99 per month; for access beyond that device, subscriptions cost $7.99 (roughly Rs. 530) a month for members of Amazon's Prime shipping and video service and $9.99 for non-members. Amazon will continue to offer Prime members a limited streaming service for free.

As part of the launch, Amazon redesigned its Music app for iOS, Android, desktop and Fire products completely. Keep in mind the most important part of Music Unlimited is the integration with Alexa and Echo devices. For example, you may soon just say things like, "Alexa, play the song of the day?" or "Alexa, play Greenday's latest album?"

What's more, Director of Amazon Music Ryan Redington says Alexa is capable of playing tracks based on your mood, as well as tell you who sings a song even if you only know part of the lyrics. Redington claims Alexa will keep getting better with time too, as it learns more about your listening habits through Amazon Music Unlimited.

Currently, Music Unlimited is only available for US customers, but the company says it "will continue to expand and enhance" the service. For starters, it's expected to launch in the UK, Germany and Austria later this year, though no clear timeline was announced by Amazon. A family plan will also be available soon, which will allow up to six people to stream music simultaneously for $15 monthly.

According to Redington, the long-rumored service is part of Amazon's business strategy since the launch of Prime Music in 2014. Still, it isn't until this year that his team actually went all in on the idea, with the goal being to develop a "fun and engaging" product. And with Alexa and Echo in people's homes now, he says, it felt like the right time to introduce Music Unlimited. Sounds Good, right? But we'll see if listeners are willing to give it a chance in the crowded music-streaming space.

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Coolpad Launches its Note 5; to be sold via Amazon on October 18

Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad on Friday launched its Note 5 smartphone which is packed with features at an unruly price of Rs 10,999. A successor in Coolpad Note series, the 5.5 inch, 4G-enabled device will be available exclusively on Amazon via open sale from October 18.

"Coolpad Note 5 is a budget-friendly power-packed product with impressive specifications," said Syed Tajuddin, CEO, Coolpad India.

Coolpad Note 5 features a 5.5 inch display with FHD resolution of 1920x1080 and 401ppi of pixel density. On the hardware front, the device is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor with 4GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage with support for up to 64GB microSD cards.

Coolpad Note 5 has a front facing camera of 8 MP with LED Flash and a 13 MP rear camera. The battery capacity is 4,010 mAh and claims up to 350 hours of standby time. The device weighs 173.4 grams, with a dimension of 152x75.7x8.85mm. The Coolpad Note 5 is also equipped with an Accelerometer, Geomagnetic Sensor Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor and Fingerprint Sensor. The phone runs Android Marshmallow with Cool UI 8.0.

The company also announced that it aims to sell over 4 million Coolpad phones in India by next two quarters. After the success of its offline pilot project in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, Coolpad will be expanding its presence in 13 cities over the next three months.

"We came to India last year with Coolpad Note 3 in a highly-competitive market and it was one of the highest selling phones in its category. I am excited to launch Note 5 that has been designed exclusively for the Indian market," Dr Luo Zhongsheng, Vice President, Coolpad Group, told at the event.

"We had set a stiff sales target ahead of us and we aim to cross the four million handsets mark by March next year and aim to be in the top five players in the global and Indian smartphone markets," Zhongsheng added.

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Microsoft acquires gaming startup Beam, which specialises in interactive game streaming

Microsoft on Thursday said it is strengthening its Xbox arsenal with the purchase of a startup specializing in letting people join in the fun while watching live-streamed game play.

Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of the deal to buy Seattle-based Beam, which puts an interactive spin on the hot trend of video games being spectator sports.

"With Beam, you don't just watch your favorite streamer play, you play along with them," Xbox Live partner group program manager Chad Gibson said in a blog post. For example, Beam can be used to let viewers assign missions, summon adversaries, or select virtual gear in games being streamed online by broadcasters.

Beam, which launched in January of this year, will become part of the team at Microsoft devoted to the technology titan's Xbox consoles. "As part of Xbox, we'll be able to scale faster than we've ever been able to before," Beam co-founder and chief executive Matt Salsamendi said in an online post. "We're continuing our focus on providing streamers with the tools they need to create the most interactive broadcasts around."

Among the big trends on display at the premier Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles in June was the rise of the celebrity player. Appetite on sites like Twitch and YouTube Gaming for play video, commentary, trailers, and more seems insatiable, industry insiders say.

"There are hundreds of millions of users watching gaming content every month," YouTube global head of gaming content Ryan Wyatt told AFP at E3. YouTube Gaming, a version of the Alphabet-owned video-sharing service tailored as a one-stop shop for game lovers, launched with a website and mobile application in August 2015. Now, billions of hours of gaming content are watched monthly at the service — and that number is rising, Wyatt said.

Amazon-owned Twitch.tv lets anyone broadcast game related content and allows them to connect with publishers or advertisers. US online retail giant Amazon snatched up Twitch and its huge audience in 2014. The purchase was one of the largest in Amazon’s history — $970 million in cash for the three-year-old Internet company.

There is a direct correlation between people watching video games and buying them, according to Twitch and YouTube.

OnePlus 3 goes official a little early, all specs revealed

OnePlus is holding a special press event to unveil the OnePlus 3 later today, but Amazon has already jumped the gun and unveiled the flagship in glorious detail. We are pretty sure you are all familiar with the OnePlus 3 thanks to the numerous leaks throughout the past few months, but here comes the confirmation.

The OnePlus 3 features a 5.5" Optic AMOLED display of 1080p resolution protected by a Gorilla Glass 4 and runs on the Snapdragon 820 chip with 6GB of RAM. The Kryo processor cores are clocked at maximum - 2x 2.2GHz and 2x 1.6GHz. OnePlus 3 has an internal storage of 64GB, non-expandable as expected.

The OnePlus 3 camera setup is rather interesting - there is a 16MP Sony IMX298 rear camera, optically stabilized, with phase-detection AF, a LED flash and 4K video recording. The front camera relies on an 8MP Sony IMX179 sensor with 1080p video capturing. The front snapper supports electronic image stabilization, which should improve the selfie videos.

Other interesting specs of the OnePlus 3 include a fingerprint sensor, a notification light, LTE Cat.6 and dual-SIM connectivity, NFC, and a 3,000 mAh battery with Dash Charge support (5V 4A or 20W).

Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with Oxygen launcher will be in charge of the OnePlus 3. The device itself is made of anodized aluminum and will be available in Graphite and Soft Gold flavors.

The OnePlus 3 goes on sale in India, invitation-free, and costs INR 27,999 or $416. We'll know more about the international availability and the OnePlus 3 in a few hours when the official announcement event kicks off.

OnePlus 3 has finally launched and will be available for Rs 27,999/-  
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